Game apparatus.



W. B. BEGKLEY.

GAME APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED AUG. 10, 1908,

Patented Nov. 30, 1909.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

ATTORNEYS W. B. BEGKLEY.

GAME APPARATUS.

urmouron FILED AUG. 10. 1908.

941,488. I v Patented Nov. 30, 1909. 56 3 SHEETS-SHEET 2. v 7 k9 A- a; Q?

4* a i 6. a?

' e? f v E v i5 By ATTORNEYS.

I W. B. BEGKLEY.

GAME APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED AUG. 10, 1908.

941,488; Patented Nov. 30, 1909.

gEI-ITS-SHEET 3. 15

IIVVENTOR ATTORNEYS,

WW5 Beck WILLIAM B. BECKLEY, .01? STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT.

GAME APPARATUS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known thatI, l/VILLIAM B. BECKLEY,

a citizen of the United States, and residing. at Stamford, in the county of Fairfield and; State of Connecticut, have invented certain. new and useful Improvements in Game Apparatus, of which the following is a specification, such as will enable those skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to game devices or apparatus, and the object thereof is to provide an improved apparatus of this class by means of which the usual or any of the ordinary games of cards may be played by means of balls made to represent the cards of the various suits, and by means of which fraud in dealing, shutliing or playing of the cards or balls is eliminated and with these and other objects in View the invention consists of an apparatus of the class specified constructed as hereinafter described and claimed.

The invention is fully disclosed in the following specification, of which the accompanying drawings form a part, in which the 1 separate parts of my improvement are designated by suitable reference characters in each of the views, and in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of my improved game apparatus, Fig. 2 a plan view thereof, Fig. 3 a transverse section on the line 3-3 of Fig.2, Fig. 4 a horizontal section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3, Fig. 5 a partial horizontal section on the line 55 of Fig. 3, Fig. 6 a sectional detail of a part of the shuffling and dealing mechanism taken on the line 6-6 of Fig. 4, and Fig. 7 a View showing a number-of the balls employed by me and which represent a portion of one of the suits of a deck of cards and showing how the balls are made to represent the cards.

In the practice of my invention, I provide a box or case a which is preferably rectangular in form and square or approximately so, and said box is provided, in the form of construction shown, with a hoppershaped top a a bottom a and four similar sides a and below the top a and at a predetermined distance therefrom is placed a hopper-shaped partition a similar in form to the top a and the space a between the Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed. August 10, 1908.

Patented Nov. 30, 1909.

Serial No. 447,703.

top a and the partition a is divided by radial partitions a which extend from the center of said space radially in the form of construction shown, to the corners of the box and form chutes a through which the balls pass as hereinafter described.

The top a of the box is provided with a central circular opening 6, and the partition a is provided with a corresponding or similar opening 79 which is preferably smaller than the opening 6. Placed centrally within the box is a receiver 6 supported, in the form of construction shown, by legs 12 connected therewith and with the bottom of the box, and secured centrally of the bottom of said receiver is a rod 79 which extends upwardly therefrom and through the openings '6 and 79 in the partition a and the top a and loosely mounted on said rod and rotatable thereon is a sleeve I) provided with a head 6 on which is placed a pointer b which, in the construction shown, is made in the form of an arrow.

The lower end of the sleeve b is provided with radial. arms 0 provided at their outer ends with upwardly directed extensions 0 and slidably mounted on the sleeve 6 is a supplemental sleeve 01 provided at its lower end with a disk d between which and the arm 0 is a spiral spring (Z The disk d is convex in form, and is of greater dimensions than the opening 6 in the partition a and said disk is below said partition and the spring (Z normally serves to force the disk d upwardly so as to close the opening 6 The bottom of the receiver Z2 is preferably convex at its upper side as shown at 12 and placed radially in the bottom portion of the box or below the partition a are four ball tubes 6' which communicate with the receiver 6 through circular openings (2 formed in the walls thereof and which extend outwardly in the direction of the corners of the box and throu h the sidewalls thereof as shown at 6 t the opposite sides of the box are placed ball troughs f which correspond with the ball tubes 0, and into one end portion of each of which one of said tubes is adapted to discharge balls as hereinafter described, and the tubes 0 are downwardly and outwardly inclined, and the receiving ends of these troughs are higher than the other ends thereof, and the discharge end of each of the ball tubes 6 is provided with a gate 6 which is pivoted to the sides of the box as shown at 6 and said gates are designed to be moved into position to close the outer ends of said ball tubes or to open the same as hereinafter described. Each side of the box is also provided centrally thereof and at the top thereof, in the form of construction shown, with a circular opening or aperture 9, and these apertures communicate with the chutes a and the top of the box is also provided, in the form of construction shown, with four radial marks or indicators h which are arranged centrally of the chutes a and in connection with which the pointer b operates.

In Fig. 7 I have shown a number of balls 2' which I employ, said balls representing a part of the suit of diamonds in an ordinary pack of cards, the cards represented being the ace of diamonds, the nine of diamonds, the jack of diamonds, the queen of diamonds, and the king of diamonds.

In practice each card of each suit will be represented by a ball and each ball will be designated in some way so as to clearly indicate the card it represents. In doing this I prefer the method. shown, and the balls may be of any desired color but are preferably made white, and in representing diamonds each ball will preferably be provided with a red diamond and with a letter or numeral indicating the particular card which the said ball is intended to represent or the balls themselves may be red and black, and the letter, numeral or other character indicating any particular card may be of any desired color.

The apparatus described is particularly designed for use in playing whist and pinochle, but any other game may be played by changing the dimensions of some of the parts as hereinafter described, and a slight change will have to be made in order to accommodate the apparatus to the different games of whist and pinochle as hereinafter described.

I will now proceed to describe the playing of the game of whist. In this game all of a deck of cards is employed and therefore fiftytwo of the balls 2' will be employed divided into suits of thirteen each, and in this case the ball tubes 0 must be of such length as to exactly contain thirteen of said balls between the gates e and the inner wall of the receiver 6 The operation of playing the game is as follows: Four players are supposed to be engaged and one is seated at each side of the box opposite the aperture or opening 9 therein. All the balls are then dumped into the hopper-shaped top a and pass through the opening Z) therein into the space between said top and the partition a and at the same time the sleeve (23 is depressed so as to force the disk 03 downwardly and permit the balls to fall into the receiver 6 It will be understood that any one of the players may deal first, and in this operation the dealer rotates the sleeve I) by means of the head 6 thereof back and forth, and in this operation the arms 0 are also rotated back and forth and the balls are thoroughly shuttled and at the same time pass into the tubes 6. This operation is continued until all the tubes 6 are completely filled, after which the sleeve 1) is turned so that the pointer b will point directly toward one of the indicator marks h or toward the dealer, and when this is done the arms 0 will be in the position indicated in Fig. 4t and the upwardly directed extensions 0 thereof will be exactly opposite the openings into the tubes 0. During this operation the gates a are in the position shown in Fig. 4:, and when the deal has been completed the said gates are turned so as to open the outer ends of the tubes 0 and the balls fall into the troughs f. The trump may be determined in any way, but I prefer that the first ball falling into the dealers trough f after the corresponding gate a is opened be considered the trump. After the shuttle and deal is completed as above described and the separate hands of balls are deposited in the troughs f, the man next tothe dealer or at his left is at liberty to play, and this is done by picking out. any one of the balls which he desires to play and passing it inwardly through the corresponding aperture or opening 9 from which it passes through the corresponding chute a. into the corresponding space beneath the opening Z) in the top a. It will be understood that the central part of the space a between the top a and partition (1, beneath the opening 0, is also divided by the inner ends of the radial partitions a into separate radial compartments j, the bottoms of which are formed by the disk (Z and as each player in turn plays, the balls played pass through the corresponding chutes a into the corresponding central chambers j where they are held until it is seen what card or ball has been played by each player and the winner of the trick determined and credited, the balls being clearly seen through the opening 6 after which the sleeve (Z is depressed together with the disk d and the balls played fall into the receiver Z), and this operation is repeated until all the balls have been played and the winner of each trick determined and credited.

In practice the game may be counted in the usual or any desired way, and by means of any preferred form of counters, but. I prefer to provide the top of the box with suitable forms of counters opposite each player, but these counters form no part of my invention and are therefore not shown and described.

It will be understood of course, that the dimensions of the balls and the dimensions of the tubes 6 may be varied, and in order to play the game of pinochle the same apparatus may be used as in the game of whist, the only diiference being that the balls will be made larger so that twelve of said balls would exactly fill each of the tubes 6, it being understood that only forty-eight balls or cards are employed in playing the game of pinochle. In playing the game of pinochle the top of the box may also be provided with pockets or stalls for each player, in which the meld is placed, but as in the case of counting the game of whist, this feature forms no partof the invention proper and is therefore not shown and described.

It will be apparent that other games of cards, as well as the games of whist and pinochle, may be played by means of my improved game apparatus, all that is necessary being to change the tubes 6 and balls, or the tubes or balls so as to correspond with the number of cards employed in such game.

My invention is not limited to the structural details of the apparatus herein shown and described, and various changes therein and modifications thereof may be made, within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit of my invention or sacrificing its advantages.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a game apparatus for playing games of cards by means of balls which represent the cards, a casing provided with a hoppershaped top having a central opening, receptacles at the sides of said casing, a receiver placed in said casing below said opening, radially arranged passages extending from the sides of the box inwardly beneath the top thereof and adapted to discharge into said receiver, a vertically movable spring supported device for closing the discharge of said passages into said receiver, radially arranged tubes communicating with the bottom of said receiver and with the receptacles at the sides of the casing, and means for shuffling the balls in said receiver and discharging said balls into said radially arranged tubes and for closing the inner ends of said tubes.

2. In a game apparatus for playing games of cards by means of balls which represent the cards, a casing provided with a hoppershaped top having a central opening, receptacles at the sides of said casing, a receiver placed in said casing below said opening, radially arranged passages extending from the sides of the box inwardly beneath the top thereof and adapted to discharge into said receiver, a vertically movable spring supported device for closing the discharge of said passages into said receiver, radially arranged tubes communicating with the bottom of said receiver and with the receptacles at the sides of the casing, and means for shufiling the balls in said receiver and discharging said balls into said radially arranged tubes and for closing the inner ends of said tubes, the outer ends of said tubes being also provided with movable closure devices.

3. In a game apparatus for playing games of cards by means of balls which represent the cards, a casing provided with a hoppershaped top open at the center, a receiver placed centrally in said casing beneath the opening in the top, radial passages extending inwardly and downwardly from the top side portions of said casing beneath the top and adapted to communicate at their inner ends with said receiver, means for closing the communication between said passages and the receiver, receptacles connected with the outer side portions of the casing, radially arranged and downwardly inclined tubes communicating with said receiver, and with said receptacle, means for shuiiling the balls in said receiver and discharging them into said tubes and for closing the inner ends of said tubes, and means for closing the outer ends of said tubes.

4. In a game apparatus for playing different games of cards by means of balls which represent the cards, a casing provided with a hopper-shaped top open at the center, receptacles connected with the outer sides of the casing, a receiver placed in the central portion of the casing beneath the top, radlally arranged passages extending from the outer sides of the casing inwardly and downwardly beneath the top and adapted to communicate with said receiver, a shuffling device placed in the bottom of the receiver and provided with a rod which extends vertically through the opening in the top of the casing, a vertically movable spring supported sleeve mounted on said rod and provided at its lower end with a disk adapted to close the communication between said receiver and said passages, and radially and downwardly inclined tubes communicating with said receiver and with the receptacles at the sides of the casing and provided at their outer ends with closure devices, the shufliing device being also provided with means for closing the inner ends of said tubes.

5. In a game apparatus for playing games of cards by means of balls which represent the cards, a casing, receptacles connected with the sides of said casing, a receiver placed centrall in said casing and opening upwardly, rad1ally arranged tubes communicating With the bottom portion of said re- I my invention I have signed my name in ceiver and with said receptacles, a shuifiing presence of the subscribing Witnesses this 10 device placed in said receiver and adapted 8th day of August 1908.

to close the inner ends of said tubes, means ,7 Y 4 r for closing the outer end of said tubes, and ILLIAM BEORLDL means whereby the balls may be deposited in Witnesses: said receiver. 1 A. R. APPLEMAN,

' In testimony that I claim the foregoing as i M. E. Doom. 

